Diana Fritz
She’s filling a special need
Underwear.
It’s something most people probably don’t think too much about. Unless, of course, you don’t have any.
But as Diana Fritz learned last fall from a news story she read, new underwear is in short supply at many homeless shelters.
Many hear of food drives, money drives and clothing drives. Fritz started “The Underwear Drive.”
“Once I got approval, I called the Shelter House here and got encouragement from them to do it,” Fritz said. “I think it’s great to see the people around me want to donate.”
For the past several years, Fritz has coordinated a holiday service project for University Hospitals’ Intensive and Surgical Services division staff, which includes about 650 people.
In the past, Fritz has helped organize a food drive for the crisis center and a fundraiser for domestic violence victim support programs. Fritz also helped organize a medical supply drive to send with a nurse to a medical clinic in Haiti.
“Usually, I’ll see an article, something on the news and then I’ll take it to the leadership group and ask them if they would consider doing this project,” Fritz said. “It’s just whatever is going on in the community. That kind of triggers it.”
Fritz said baskets were put out to gather underwear. Donations this year included socks, underwear, thermal underwear, blanket sleepers and more than $218 in cash donations to the Iowa City Shelter House. The cash donation paid for 10 nights of shelter and service to a community member in need.
What makes it special for Fritz is the effect a group donation can have as opposed to a single contribution from one person.
“With one person, I could give a donation to the Shelter House,” Fritz said. “But this made it a much bigger contribution to them.”
— Mike McWilliams
